Bonding Time
by yellowermine
Summary: Clare, Miria, Deneve and Helen share a quiet moment travelling toward southern lands, Clare's link to Teresa is uncovered and Miria and Clare have a small talk about love and Claymores... slight MiriaXClare...R&R please


Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN CLAYMORE… Teresa would be alive if I owned it…

Sorry for any grammar mistakes you'll find, English is not my first language…

**_Bonding Time_**

Clare, Miria, Helen and Deneve were moving to the southern regions to look for the Abyssal ones, but decided to stop in a restricted area for a few days. After a day of hard workout they were sitting on the floor resting their backs on their swords making a little chat about any improvements they had done during the training.

"Can I ask you a question, Clare?" Deneve asked after a moment of silence between the four.

"Ask, but don't expect an answer…" Clare's cold voice replied turning to look at her companion's face

"Always so _rude_, aren't you?" Helen teased, unable to keep her tongue in check

"Why were you given number 47 even if your skills were evidently higher?"

"They didn't test my abilities like they did for all the others…"

"Huh? Why not?" again Helen's mouth asked before her brain could stop it

"They didn't expect much from a Claymore with just ¼ of Yoma blood in her body…"

"You mean you're not half Yoma and half human? I never heard the organization made such Claymores…"

"It was my own choice… the blood I was given was not that of a Yoma…" Clare replied moving a lock of golden hair behind her ear.

"…but that of another Claymore, right?" Miria opened her silvery eyes and looked straight at her friend, the leader had been quiet for all the time and the others thought she had fallen asleep.

"She was much more than another Claymore…" Clare replied casting her eyes away from her comrades. Moments of silence followed, the constant flowing of the stream near their campsite being the only sound that could be heard in the area.

"The two chaste goddesses of love..." Miria whispered to herself, but the words didn't escape Clare's hearing, and the younger warrior instantly looked up to stare right into a pair of bright silvery eyes.

"Teresa and Clare… you have Teresa's blood in you…" the leader concluded noticing the slight surprised stare Clare was giving her.

"Teresa?!" both Helen and Deneve said simultaneously with a confused tone

"You mean, Teresa of the Faint Smile… the strongest Claymore of all eras?" the one known to be a troublemaker continued

"As I said she was much more than that…"

"So what they tell is true, Teresa really betrayed the organization for a young girl she had saved… and you're that girl" Miria said, not believing her own words. She could not think that the girl for whom Teresa had killed had been right in front of her all this time. She had always seen Teresa as a role model, a Claymore who rebelled against the organization never thinking twice over it, a Claymore that choose humanity over power even if she was the strongest of all. But she was never certain of what they told her about the reasons Teresa left, it was hard to believe an experienced killer as Teresa could change for a little girl.

"She was my reason to live, as I was hers…and this was the only way to keep her forever with me" Clare replied taking her right hand above her heart.

"So, you became a Claymore of your own free will…" Helen said in a low voice so different from her usual self

"Teresa was everything to me, even if I know she wouldn't have approved my choice, I had to revenge her death…"

"I believe that in a way or another every one of us has somebody to revenge, that's what give us the strength to fight and improve…after what we experienced we just wouldn't have been able to stay just human" Deneve said remembering her sister's death, and how impotent she had felt at that moment; even if she becoming a Claymore wasn't her own choice she couldn't say she regretted it. At least she had saved someone else's life.

* * *

Helen and Deneve had gone in the city to buy supplies for the travel, and they had probably stopped at some pub as they used to do in the evenings. Helen wasn't one to go bed early even if she was tired, and in the dead silent cave where they spent their nights she felt like a nun, and hermit life was surely not suitable for a loud woman like her.

Clare and Miria decided instead to stay in the cave, they were lying beside one other; the only thing separating their back from the cold floor was a bear fur they used to keep warm in the northern lands.

"She would have liked you…" Clare said in a soft voice that was unlike her

"Huh?" Miria murmured absentmindedly

"Teresa would have liked you; you're her type of person… one that never gives up"

"Just like you, uh…" Miria's silver eyes stared deeply into Clare's identical ones as they turned to look at each other's faces

"Miria… if I'm not able to take Priscilla's head, would you do it for me?" the younger one asked feeling that she could speak frankly with her friend

"I'll do my best, but I'm sure you'll be beside me the moment _we_ cut off Priscilla's head…" the leader replied with that gentle tone of voice that was typical of her character

"I hope so…"

The cave fell into silence, the two Claymores lost in their private thoughts, their almost simultaneous breathing and the warmth of their bodies the only distracting elements in the quiet natural room.

"How was she? In reality I mean, out of legend…" Miria asked out of the blue

"She was sad... a lonely soul, a rejected creature…she knew she was just a tool for the humans and an enemy for yomas, she felt like she didn't belong to anywhere"

"But then she met you…" the older warrior said shifting on her side to look better to her companion

"Don't think she liked me initially, I was just a pain in the neck for her, she thought I belonged with humans, but understanding we shared the same feelings of rejection she decided I belonged with her…" Clare said remembering how warm it felt being embraced by her mentor, by her savior; how she felt relaxed when they slept near each other in the nights even if it wasn't cold.

"Do you believe she cared for you? Or were you two connected just by the sharing of the same painful feelings?"

"Are you asking me if I believe we are capable of loving?" Clare asked back understanding her friend's doubts

"I'm just trying to understand if what Helen always says is true…"

_'We ARE human!"_ Helen's words promptly echoed in the heads of both Claymores.

"I don't know what her real feelings were, but I know I'm capable of loving… I care for Raki, I care for Helen, Deneve, for all our comrades… I care for you, Miria"

"I care for you too, Clare…" genuine smiles appeared on both their faces; their silver irises lost their monstrously scary glint, becoming more expressive than human eyes could ever be. They felt a pure flow of energy coming through their bodies, it was a blissful feeling of complicity and understanding that rarely happened in their lives. Instinctively Miria's hand reached Clare's face, her cold fingers tracing her companion's thin lips with a delicate touch unthinkable for a woman of her strength.

"If Teresa's smile was this beautiful I'm sure she would be able to love…" she said staring intensely into Clare's clear silver eyes.

"Oh, what a sappy scene! Thank god we arrived in time, Deneve, or our innocent eyes would have met with a blasphemous scene of hot Sapphic sex…" the loud voice of their fellow warrior broke the static silence in the cave.

It was a rare sight seeing a Claymore blush, and to inexpert eyes it wouldn't have been noticeable, but to Deneve and Helen's eyes the slight pink color on both Clare and Miria's cheeks was quite evident. They both smiled maliciously looking onto the scene

"God, girls… we can't even leave you two for a moment that you jump on each other…" Deneve teased along, breaking her usual mask of rationality and seriousness.

"Hermit life is bad for us… you should have listened to me" Helen said moving towards the two lying figures

"Helen, Deneve do I have to remind you why the organization decided to give you opposite regions?" Miria said sitting up on the fur, a challenging glare in her eyes

"I would have never thought you'd be one to use blackmail on your teammates, Miria" Deneve replied putting down the supplies on the wooden table they had built.

"We were just joking, you know…"

"Interrupting us like that was really _rude_ of you, Helen…" Clare said getting up and gripping the hilt of her claymore in a threatening way

"Did you just make a sarcastic remark, Clare?" the loud mouthed asked taken aback

"Think whatever you want…" Clare replied coldly, not moving when Helen threw an arm around her neck in a playful hug

"Oh, I'm so proud of you! I'm finally breaking through your apathetic demeanor…"

"I believe she's been playing with you for all these years, my friend…" Deneve commented looking at her friends.

"I believe that too…" Miria agreed smiling warmly at Clare who returned her smile giving a playful hit on Helen's back.

**A/N:** I hope you liked it… I wrote it last night on the spur of the moment, I hope the girls are not too OOC, and please bear with me for the grammar mistakes, as I said English is not my first language, and it's been awhile since last time I wrote a fanfic…so I my writing might be a little rusty… thanks for reading and please review... I would really like to hear what you think of it…


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